TSW Works with Intown Atlanta Neighborhood, Poncey-Highland

TSW has been leading a project centered around Atlanta’s Poncey-Highland neighborhood. The work is being done in partnership with City of Atlanta Councilmember Kwanza Hall and the city’s Department of Planning and Community Development. TSW has been facilitating community meetings, including a large workshop that included not only a workshop for adults but activities for children. Later this fall, after review by the Poncey-Highland Neighborhood Association and Neighborhood Planning Unit-N, the final plan will be considered by the Atlanta City Council for inclusion in the city’s comprehensive development plan.

Poncey-Highland is the neighborhood near Freedom Park, roughly south of Ponce de Leon between Inman Park and the Old 4th Ward.

This year it’s seen a new, eco-friendly playground. A group of neighbors planted a community garden right beside it. And the neighborhood’s new Springdale Park Elementary will soon open.

Much of the work and initiative is coming from those who live there, says city councilman Kwanza Hall. He hopes other Atlanta neighborhoods will be inspired.

“I mean a $250,000 endevour, they were able to pull off in less than a year. Some groups takes years to do things like that, and never even achieve the goal, but they were able to get together and make it happen.”

Because residents are doing so much, Hall’s office only has to contribute $13,000 towards the plan that he says normally costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Kids will become urban planners on Saturday, June 27 at the public workshop for the Poncey-Highland Master Plan.

With help from the Atlanta chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the second community meeting for the master plan will be uniquely family-friendly. The meeting, which starts at 9:00 a.m., will take place at Druid Hills Baptist Church, 1085 Ponce de Leon Ave. NE (corner of Ponce and N. Highland Avenues).